Elysium - A Richonne fanfic
by lanie-love09
Summary: After reuniting with Carol, Tyreese and Judith, Rick and Michonne stumble upon a mysterious hidden gated community called Elysium while out on a supply run. As they wonder through the mysterious gated community the two of them discover the true meaning of Elysium. (Lemons shots, and plenty of feels between Rick and Michonne) This fanfic was written before the Season 4 episode "A".
1. TWD: Elysium

**Chapter 1: Rick, Carl and Michonne reach Terminus  
**

Michonne watches as Rick explains to Carl why he must stay at the camp.

"Carl, Michonne and I need to go on a supply run and I need you to stay here to watch and protect Judith." Rick tells him.

"Rick, I can help you, you need me", Carl says, "Why are always treating me like a little kid?"

Carl walks away in a huff leaving Rick standing speechless with Judith in his arms.

Michonne sees Rick and says, "Let me see if I can talk to him."

As Carl walks toward the tent given to them by the camp, he unzips it; walks inside and zips it back up.

Michonne decides to walks up to the closed nylon tent door, "Knock, Knock can I come in for a sec?"

Carl unzips the tent door then goes back to sit down. As Michonne pushes the door open she walks in zips the door back up.

After looking at how angry his is; she sighs and sits down next to him, "Carl, you are one of the luckiest people today. You and your father were able to reunite with Judith. This is a dream come true for you and Rick. You may not realize it but you father is giving one of the most important jobs in the world to him right now. The most important thing in this world to him is keeping the two of you together and safe. Rick has to go on this run for supplies for you and your sister and he trusts you and only you to look out for her; so that the two of you will never be separated again. If something should happen to him out there he will feel better knowing that the two of you are together", She tells him.

"Carl..." She chokes somewhat, "I can't tell you how to be a man that is your father's job; but I can tell you how to be an an adult requires that you put your ego and your pride aside and to look at the bigger picture. To not always be concerned with what you want."

Michonne goes silent for a second then shew looks down at her hands remembering how perfect Andre's hand fit in her. "Believe me...", she says n shame, "...you don't want to pass up a moment with Judith. Not one. I would give anything to hold Andre in my arms one more time. Anything, please don't be blinded by your need to prove how strong you are to your father he already knows it, O.k?"

With a deep exhale Carl realizes that she's is right and says, "O.k."

"Right now the most important thing to your father is keeping the three of you together, always." Michonne tells him.

Carl stands and looks at Michonne with agreement; then begins to unzip the tent.

"One more thing", she blurts out.

"Do me a favor, stop calling him Rick. Two of the greatest titles that anyone could ever have is being called Dad. And I am sure...you can figure out what the other title is o.k.?"

Carl smiles and says, "O.k." and walks out.

He walks out and zips the tent back up only to find Rick walking around from the back of the tent.

"Carl? Can you do me a favor? Can you take Judith over to Tyreese's tent and get her something to eat?" Rick asks.

Carl looks at him then at Judith and smiles motioning Rick to pass her to him and he tells him, "Sure Dad", and begins to walk away while talking gibberish to Judith.

* * *

As Rick watches Carl walk away and he looks up towards the rising sun with smile and begins to walk toward the nylon door of the tent to thank Michonne when he hears her sobbing. He decides that this probably isn't the best time and walks toward the supply crate to get weapons and bags for the run.

Twenty minutes later Rick sees Michonne emerge from the tent with puffy eyes yet a look of seriousness on her face. Rick begins to walk towards her with his hand extended handing her a couple of bags. "You ready?"

Michonne nods her head once and puts the bag around her shoulder. Rick can see in her body language that she's become withdrawn with a look of hopelessness in her movement.

"Let's go" Michonne says and begins walking toward the train tracks not looking at Rick.

As they begin to walk together along the train tracks in silence Rick leans down a little bit in order to catch her eyes while she is looking down. "Hey, thanks for talking to Carl. It seems as though you're the only one he will listen to reason."

She looks up and turns towards him with a one corner smile, "It was my pleasure he's a good kid." He is just trying to find out where his place is in the group other than with the kids, that's all."

"Well you have definitely got a gift when it comes to Carl" Rick tells her. Michonne gives a little laugh and keeps walking.

"Although, there was one little inaccuracy that I overheard you tell him." Rick tells her.

They both stop walking, "Oh, what was that?" she says.

Rick glances the tracks ahead that they have to walk and says,

"The number, you got the number wrong. It's four. The most important thing to me is keeping the four of **_us_** together."

Rick starts to walk again but pauses for Michonne to walk with him.

Once she catches up; with a smile of reassurance on her face she starts walking in unison with him and says, "Well, I guess I stand corrected."


	2. Idle talk

While walking along the train tracks toward the resort sign Rick pulls out the wrist watch that Carol gave him to see how long it has been since they left the camp; looks up at the sky, "It must be turning fall because it only 5:15p and the sun is going down."

"Probably" Michonne says.

As the two of them turn a bend they see the sign for the resort, "_Elysium only ten miles away_". Right beneath the sign about 20 yards away they see walkers feasting on a something. So they quickly dash off to the left side of the tracks heading in to the woods.

Walking through the dense woods Rick and Michonne come across 5 walkers. She looks at Rick and says, "Hold up", pulls some heavy rope that is about 16-20 feet long. Then she proceeds to walk up to two of walkers close together and cut off their arms with her katana. She slices their jaws off so their unable to bite then she double wraps the heavy rope around their necks and give them a light tug for them to follow her then hands the rope to Rick.

"Walkers can hide you from other walkers." She tells him. Then she slices one of the other three walkers in half and begins to make walker pets out of the last two for herself.

**One hour later,**

Ricks stops walking, "We had better go ahead and camp here for the night."

Rick ties his pet walkers to one tree, Michonne ties hers to another. After making a camp fire with some matches the two sits down and leans in towards the fire to get warm. Rick glances at Michonne and sees she still cold; so he takes his jacket that he had acquired from the claimer he killed the bathroom after the fall of the prison. He places it around her shoulders to help keep her warm.

"What are you doin'?" she asks.

"You're definitely not dressed for this kind of weather." He explains.

With as smirk on her face ahe asks, "And you are?"

"Well maybe we can share...let's say, about every other hour I'll wear it, deal?" Rick says.

"Deal.", she replies.

The two of them go silent for a few moments before Rick asks,"I hope you don't mind me asking; and please tell me if you don't want to talk about it, but while you were talking to Carl this morning at the camp you mentioned someone named Andre, was that someone close to you?"

Michonne looks in to the fire rubbing her hand together and reluctantly says with a tiny smile, "Andre was my little man, my son."

Rick looks back in to the fire, feeling bad that he forced her to remember something as painful as the loss of her child. He knows how painful it is because he had been in the same position before being reunited with Judith.

Seeing how melancholy the subject made her; he changes the subject, "So, what did you do before the world went to hell?"

Michonne, still somber from the previous question says, "I was a environmentalist attorney".

He didn't want to seem too surprised at her previous occupation, he says, "I see, so you were trying to stop us from destroying the earth."

She looks at him and nods "Yea", with a smile.

"Was this something you were good at?" he asks.

She laughs ironically, "I was made a partner 3 months before this…this pestilence."

"Well, titles don't mean shit anymore; everybody's playing by the same rules now", he says.

Michonne looks at him and shakes her head up and down slowly, "Maybe so."

Rick looks around for any stray walkers then slides back on the ground to lean on the tree with his set of walkers, then he looks over at Michonne, "Pssst."

She looks at Rick and in a low voice he says, "Come here", patting his thighs signaling for her to lay her head on his lap.

Michonne slides across the gravel and lowers her head in to his lap. He leans his head on the back of the tree and "Whispers you got another 30 minutes with that jacket."


	3. Chapter 3 Welcome to Elysium

Chapter 3: Welcome Elysium

As Rick started to open his eyes he could feel fall snowflakes trickle through the dense woods. He lifted the back of his head slowly off tree he was leaning against. In this new world you don't make a lot of sudden moves unless you see walkers coming right at you. If you can't move with a little stealth you won't last long in world. Rick looks around for roaming walkers then looks down at Michonne lying on his legs sleeping with his jacket being used as her blanket. For some reason Rick looking down at her with his jacket gave him a feeling that he hadn't felt in a long while. In control. For the past six months Rick had been playing the role of farmer and pig herder. The group at the prison waited patiently until he was ready to take his place again as the head of the group. However, by the time he was ready it was too late.

What bothered Rick the most was that everybody else even those people who came to the prison from Woodbury believed in his ability to lead. Everyone believed it except Rick; he didn't believe it at all. Perhaps he had been holding on to guilt for not protecting Lori. At the prison he was constantly in a state of indecisiveness. Camping in the woods with Michonne sleeping on his lap with his jacket covering her he became empowered because he saw that she was cold he had the ability to provide her with warmth. Rick realized that his confidence was coming back and he couldn't tell if it was because he was able to get out of that house quick without being detected? Or was it his ability to get out of the house before Carl and Michonne came back with supplies. Either way whatever the boost was he was sure that the woman sleeping on his lap had something to do with it.

Rick was captivated in this quiet moment. Each snowflake that fell from the wooded sky fell upon Michonne's hair, her forehead, eyelids, eye lashes and her lips. For a split second wanted to be one of those lucky snowflakes to touch her mahogany rich skin. He reaches his hand down to gently move one of her locks of hair off of her face, "Chonne, Chonne, come on let get started."

As Michonne lifted her head up out of Rick's lap she felt a bit euphoric. For some odd reason she felt well rested. Something she hasn't felt in a long while. So long in fact she can't recall the last time she felt this good. Then she recognized that she felt strong because she felt safe with Rick.

After walking in the woods for a while with their walker shields, they both see what looks like a brick wall. However, as they got closer to the wall it began to stretch as far as they could see in both directions. Once they came to wall Rick looks at Michonne and says, "What do ya' think? It's about 8' right?" Michonne looks toward the top of the wall and says tiredly, "It doesn't matter, hoist me up."

Rick folds his hands and bends over down to his knees. Then Michonne puts her foot in and he hoisters her up. Michonne grabs the top ledge of the wall and jumps pulls herself up on the wall and looks down and around. "No walkers so far as I can see", she says. "All right come back down I don't want you to go on the other side without me." Rick tells her. Michonne starts to lower herself back down by extending her arms so that she is hanging along the wall. Rick wraps both arms around her legs then Michonne let's go of the wall and Rick loosens his grip around her legs so she slides down through his arms.

Once Michonne's feet are on the ground she is standing face to face with Rick. The last time she was this close to Rick's face she was a stranger and had a bullet in her thigh courtesy of Merle Dixon. But now there was no tension or fear…well at least not fear in a dangerous sense. Fear of emotion. Fear of having feelings for someone that's not based on survival. The feeling of having a man's arms around her waist was more than comforting it was stimulating. This feeling was something that she knew well when the world made sense, but now this feeling scared her. The last time she felt that way about a man he died and became her warning walker. Michonne was never superstitious as a lawyer but now…she just knew that she didn't want anything to happen to Rick. So she backed away from him graciously.

Michonne turned around and said, "How about I go over the wall with one end of the rope, then you get a running start and hop on the wall while grabbing the rope and I'll pull you up." "You think you can pull my weight?" Michonne says with a hopeful grin, "I guess I better or I will be on the other side of this wall alone."

Once they are both over the wall they both look around "Is this a golf course?" Michonne says. As Rick is gathering the rope he looks at Michonne, "Who the hell is bothering to cutting the lawn?" As they begin walking across the neat lawn they don't see anything or anybody. Alive or dead, all they see can see are the snow flurries falling. "We had better hurry up and find some type of coverage in case of walkers or unfriendly people show up." Rick says. After ten minutes they reach a paved path. They start following the path up a slight incline for a thirty minutes and they begin to see bushes lining a 3 foot wall. Then the path starts to turn in to a drive leading to building a building with a sign that says," Elysium Fields Community?" Rick whispers. "It must some type of gated or …walled community." Rick nudges Michonne to walk a little closer to the bushes against the wall for coverage. While the two make their way toward what they believe to be the registration building Rick and Michonne notice a dozen or so golf carts neatly lined up a little ways down the drive way. Once they get to the front door they are quickly becoming more and more concerned with the way their surrounding look. "This is starting to freak me out." Michonne whispers. "Yea it feels like I am in a Twilight Zone episode." Rick tells her. Michonne stopped walking crouching down and shakes her head looking at Rick, "Really. This is the only time in that past year and a half that the current surroundings have made you feel like you were in an episode of the Twilight Zone?" Rick grins at her and whispers, "Shut up." Rick grabs on the front of glass doors and sees that it's locked so he motions to Michonne to follow him.

As Michonne follows Rick around the side of the building she can see the tops of other buildings. She taps Rick on the shoulders and points to the top of the other buildings, "Those roofs have solar panels." She says. Rick nodes his head and keeps moving slowly around the back of the building. When they reach the back of the building they see a empty parking lot and a dumpster. Rick walks up to a back door to see if it opens but it's locked. Michonne looks at him and motions to him to go toward the building with the solar panels. As they begin to walk toward the buildings the paved street turns slightly to the right and winds down in to a residential community. All the off the grid tiny homes with large solar panels on the roofs. There wasn't any trash on the ground all of the front lawns were neat with exception of the leaves falling off the tall tree that in the middle of each lawn. Each house had bushes almost all along the sides of each house. Then Rick starts to notice that every house appears to have a pool. Some of them are above ground and some in-ground.

"Where are the people or at least the walkers?" Michonne says. "I don't know. So stay sharp." Rick whispers. As they come to the bottom of the street it turns in to a round- about. In the center of the round-about is a statue of a man. When you look beyond the statue you can see stores and what appears to be an express clinic. Many of them were popping up all over the state for couple years before the outbreak. However, the stores had solar panels on the roofs too.

Rick and Michonne look at each other with a small grin. Rick says with a little laugh, "Maybe we should have brought more bags. Look at the houses on the corner of where the round-about begins. They're a little bit larger than the rest", he says. Each of those houses has their own pool and the largest pool on each block. To the left of the fork when you look down the road there are about twenty five homes on each side of the road. At the end of the road is a water tower. When you look to right of the fork in the road same number of house on each side and then at the end of that block is a mansion." "It's the morning and nothing is moving around here but the trees. Everybody is either sleepin' in or they're herds of walkers somewhere." Michonne says.

Rick looks at her and motions toward the corner house on his left, "Maybe we should just knock on the door. If anyone answers we can just tell them were Jehovah witnesses." Michonne giggles, "You crazy Grimes."

Rick starts to move toward the front of the house. Michonne is right behind looking at the areas that he may have missed. Once they move toward the back of the house they see that there are no fences. Once they get in to the yard they see a bike rack against the back of the house with 6 bikes in each metal slot. When you look at the backyard part of it has enough perfectly cut grass for a small shed a grill and a magnolia tree that is nearly completely empty of leaves. The rest of it is cemented around the extra larger in-ground pool. There was a lawn and lounge chairs around the sides. The pool was a bit dried up but over the past year or so there has been enough rain to keep in nearly full. All the leaves from the magnolia bush fell in the pool creating a sort of pool cover. In between some of the leaves you could see the water was tainted by seasons of over grown algae. Rick moves quickly over to the shed to see if it opens. It does. When they walk in the shed they see lots of pool equipment, HTH, bike tires and keys with labels on them. Labels like Elysium Fields warehouse and Elysium Fields Library.

"Well my shed was never this neat." Michonne says. "Neither was mine." Rick responded. They stepped out of the shed closing the shed door and walk over towards the pool. "They clearly haven't done much in a while if the pool looks like that in fall." He says.

Unbeknownst to them the closing of the shed door brought out a quiet walker from behind the shed. As the walker snuck up on them Michonne turned around. As she turned around she saw the walker about to grab Rick and she yelled, "Rick!" As Michonne stepped her left leg back getting ready to unsheathe her katana she forgot about the pool and fell straight back in the center of it. "Michonne!", Rick said. Then he turned his head around and saw the walker reaching for him. He turned to the right and bashed him in the head with the crow bar he had been carrying.

When Michonne fell back in the pool a good portion of the leaves flew right out of the pool on to the cement. Michonne tried opening her eyes but the dirty water immediately began to burn her eyes. So she quickly closed them. Michonne began to wave her arms around in order to swim to the top. But she noticed that every time she tried to swim her way up to the top there was something grabbing at her legs and arms. Michonne knew instantly that there was more than leaves and dirty water in the pool.


	4. Chapter 4: HTH Shock Treatment

"Shit, shit, shit!" Rick cried! "No, Nooo! Rick! Pull me up! Pull me up! Michonne shouted as tried to push through flailing arms grabbing at her hair, arms, and legs. She quickly pushes her way to the side of the in-ground pool and lifts her arm for Rick to pull her out. "I gotcha', I gotcha'", he said pulling Michonne out of the pool with her extended arm. Just as Michonne's legs are coming out of the water a dark green water bloated arm reaches out of the filthy water and grabs Michonne's leg. "No, No!" She says while trying to kick the head of the walker attached to the arm.

Rick finally pulls her all the way out the pool and stands her up. Rick immediately grabs and embraces her, "Shit, are you alright?" he says rubbing Michonne's back. Michonne can't speak she can't move, due to shock. Then Rick takes his hands and gently grabs Michonne's face then leans in and looks in to her rich brown eyes and whispers, "Are you alright, you o.k.?" Michonne, still in shock, immediately snaps out of it and looks in to Rick's deep blue eyes. Out of nowhere Michonne gets a sudden chill and says, "Yea, I'm alright." Seeing that she had a chill Rick gently embraces her again rubbing her back calmingly, "Alright." He says again with a crack in his voice, "You're alright." Michonne does something that she hasn't done sense she was with her boyfriend at the camp…hug another man. She wraps her arms around Rick's waste and lays her head right under his chin while closing her eyes. In her mind, she knew that this perfect moment of security wasn't going to last so she just laid there on Rick's chest soaking up whatever affection she could get at this moment.

After a minute or two they both realized that their embrace was longer than that of a just a partner in survival mode. They both release each other then look at one another. Rick starts blushing at the fact that he embraced Michonne so long. But to him, again he felt so alive and grateful at the fact that he could save her life.

Rick starts to look down at the walkers in the pool while Michonne takes her hand and wipes her eyes. Michonne then looks at the pool. The walkers are climb over each other but making no progress because they are in the deep end of the pool. Time seemed to stand still as Michonne and Rick watched what looked like a large pot of boiling live crabs trying to get out of the hot water. But it was really just about 30-40 zombies rotten and bloated from sitting in water for who knows how long.

Michonne moves to the grassy area of the backyard and begins to hop on her right leg while patting her ear on the left side. She stops hopping and begins to move her jaw around trying to clear her ear that's clogged. Then she takes the finger on her right hand and shakes her right ear. "That's better. My ear was clogged." She says looking at Rick. "Is it clear now?" he replied. "Most of it, I can hear a lot better now." Michonne in a panic remembered about her grabbing her katana right before falling in the pool. So she quickly reaches back to feel for her sword and it is there. She pulls it out of the holster and look at it closely like examining it for first time. Michonne hated being attached to anyone or anything but there was a sense of calming knowing that she had not lost her katana.

Rick turns away from the pool and looks at the walker he killed right before Michonne fell in then looks at the house to the right. It is very neat. The same bike rack with four bikes in four metal slots, however this backyard didn't have a pool. The backyard 3 houses over had one and so on all the way up the block. "You ready?" Rick said. "Yea," Michonne responded.

They start walking up the back steps to the mini mansion/tiny home Rick opens the screen door. He knocks on the window with his left hand three times hopping while holding the crowbar with his right. No activity. No one or no-thing comes to the door. Rick knocks again but nothing happens so he slowly turns the knob of the backdoor then turns to Michonne and nods his head telling her to get ready.

As Rick walks in to the house he realizes he is in the kitchen. And he quickly notices that nothing is out of place. He leans toward the kitchen sink and sees that there are no dishes in it. Michonne comes up behind Rick and places her hand on the screen door allowing the screen to slowly close. They begin to walk to the right towards what appears to be the dining room. The dining room is in pristine condition, there's a plastic floral center piece on the dining room table and all the chairs are neatly pushed in.

As they quietly and slowly move through to another room beyond the dining room they look at the walls and they are all empty. No family pictures and no wall decorations. They start to approach a room that looks like a den or social area. But everything was set in its place. Rick starts to walk in to the front of the house by the front door and looks up the stairs that curve to the right. Rick walks past the front door and the stair and pops his head in to the next room. He sees around 12 empty folding chairs and they are all facing a white wall with a large flat screen television. The room was setup like a classroom or a lecture room. In the far right hand corner of the room there is a picture on the wall. Rick looks at Michonne and nods his head toward the inside of the room. He quietly walks over to the picture in the far right corner and looks at the picture. It shows a strange looking white man. Nearly pale white, his hair was all white and he was wearing what looked like a white suit with a white tie against a completely black back drop. Michonne walks next to Rick and looks at the picture then shakes her head disapprovingly.

"Come on let go upstairs. I have got to find some clothes this shit feels disgusting and it stinks", Michonne whispered. Rick turns to her and shakes his head with a smile in agreement.

As they move back toward the stair case Rick grabs the TV remote off one of the end tables in the classroom. He then throws it up the stairs so that it hits the wall creating a loud enough noise to wake up any walkers. No movement. Rick and Michonne start walking up the semi-winding staircase. Once they get to the top they peak in to an open door immediately to their right. When they look in they see a master bed room.


	5. The Price of Elysium

With a king size bed completely made up with two throw pillows in the center of the mattress. They both start walking around, Michonne moves toward a door that looks like a closet while Rick explores the other side of the room.

Michonne walks up on the door and knocks three times then listens. Rick looks at her then Michonne nods her head that she is going to open the door. She opens the door slowly and nothing happens. She grabs her sword and pokes around in the closet for walkers. She notices that there is a long skylight in the ceiling, its large enough so you can see everything in the closet. Michonne immediately looks for something to change in to. One side of the closet has men's clothes the other side has women's clothes. She starts looking through the men's side and finds a perfectly ironed shirts and khakis. She checks out the women's side and sees the same setup ironed shirts and khakis. At the end of the closet she sees a large dresser. She walks over and opens the drawers and sees men's socks, underwear and under shirts, a shaving kit and empty army type knife holster. She starts putting the stuff in her bag then she opens the bottom three drawers. It all women's undergarments, underwear bras socks…then in the last drawer 5 boxes of maxi pads and 10 unopened tampon boxes. "Jackpot!" she says under her breath.

While Michonne is exploring the closet, Rick checks out the other side of the large master bedroom he comes to the opening of the master bath that is along the same wall as the bed. As he walked in he noticed how bright the bathroom was from the large skylight in the center of the ceiling. As he paned to the right he sees a rotten body in between the end of the joining bathroom sink and the toilet. He looks on the floor and there are dried puddles of blood of everywhere. Rick walks closer to the his/hers sinks and both of them have dried blood stains rings in and around them. He looks in to the large mirror then he's, "The price of Elysium" written in brown dried up blood. As he walks in the direction of the rotten corpse he sees a pistol in what appears to be a man's hand. He shot himself through the head. He never got the chance to turn. Rick grabs the pistol and checks it for bullets. Rick walks over to the extremely large tub and sees the corpse of dead woman. The woman must have drowned because the dried skin had the texture of a dried out raisin. There was blood splatted on the wall where the woman's head was at the end of the tub. Rick looked closely at the woman's head and saw there was a bullet hole.

Rick starts to understand what type of walled community "Elysium Fields" was. For some odd reason Rick tries to walk in the exact steps he took to get in the bathroom. This is a crime scene. He begins to look at the writing on the mirror again then bends down to look in the cabinets under the his/her sinks.

He sees lots of toilet paper couple bottles of alcohol, hydrogen peroxide and gallon jugs with hand written labels that says "vinegar". As he empties the cabinets he see in the back corner a plastic create that should be used for carrying cleaning supplies but it's actually filled with large prescription and over the counter medicine bottles. Some with pills and some are large liquid prescription bottles. He grabs all of it and dumps it in one of his bags then stands up and turns the faucet on and a little stream of water flows out. Rick smiles a little in amazement at how long it has been sense he has seen water coming from the faucet. He forgot that at one time water was as easy as turning a faucet knob. He walks back to the doorway again looking at the room as if he was still a sheriff. The sheriff in him could tell that this was a murder suicide.

When Michonne starts to walk out of the closet she looks along the floor on both sides of the closet as she got closer to the door she pushes back the clothes on the hanger and sees a machine gun laying on the floor in the corner with around 20 boxes of ammunition to go with it. When she pushed the clothes back a little more right behind a shoe rack there is a shot gun and boxes of ammunition for a shot gun and a pistol. She sticks her head out or the closet door, "Rick, check this out." She whispered. Rick walks over and looks down and sees the weapons. He quickly starts grabbing the guns and Michonne starts grabbing the box of ammunition and stuffs it in her bag. As Rick is grabbing the guns he checks to see if it is fully loaded. After that he shuffles through the closet trying to find something long to use for a gun strap but didn't see anything however, he did grab all the belts he saw and dumped in his bag. Then he began grabbing some shirts and socks and underwear from the dresser on the men's side. "Let check out the rest of the floor", Rick told Michonne. He was holding the pistol and hands Michonne the machine gun.

As they walk out of the master bedroom Michonne adjusts her bags on her shoulder, "Anything good in the bathroom?" Rick stops and looks at Michonne, "No. Hell…I wish I never walked in there." Michonne nods her head in agreement.

As they go down the other end of the hall they tap on another door and hear nothing. Rick and Michonne go in and see 12 handmade toddler bunk beds. All the beds are made up perfectly. But the room is missing all signs of young children's room. No toys or books just beds. Michonne walks toward the closet and does a quick knock she doesn't hear anything so she grabs the door knob then she hears high pitched heavy breathing then scratching at the door. It sounds like children walkers. Michonne slowly lets go of the knob and turns to Rick. Rick hears it as well. The banging and kicking at the door gets louder and louder. "Come on." Rick says walking toward one of the bunk bed sets. Michonne lays down her bags real quick and helps him push the bunk beds so that it blocks the closet door. They can hear more banging, kicking and scratching at the door. They get the beds against the door. Rick starts to grab a couple of blankets off the other bunk beds and Michonne does the same. As they leave the toddler room and close the door they start to hear the stirring of walkers in some of the other rooms luckily the doors are closed except for the one at the opposite end of the master bedroom. It appears that there is no door on the hinge in that room.

Suddenly a group of at least 8 what used to be preteen female walkers come out. "Damn! Let's get out of here everybody's waking up." Ricks says. As they rushes down the steps they look behind and see that the 8 preteen walkers are coming toward the stairs. Rick jumps last five steps to the bottom floor, he turns around, "Jump Chonne they're about to fall down the steps behind you!" Michonne is about 10 steps away from the bottom floor and jumps. Just as Rick helps Michonne up with her bags the walkers start tumbling down the long staircase. Rick quickly opens the front door then the storm door. Michonne squeezes through both doors with her bags and just as he closes the front door one of the preteen walker hands reach for the small opening in the front door. Rick in a panic pulls the door closed severing the walker hand from its body. Michonne walks down the steps on the porch and turns around to see Rick looking at the little hand on the ground. "Christ!' he says then lets the storm door slam shut. "Are you alright?" Michonne says to Rick seeing that he is a bit rattled. "Come on we'll see if we can clear a house and set this stuff in one spot then check out some of the other houses and the stores on the other side of that statue.


	6. Chapter 6: Maybe

Rick and Michonne walk across the street of this walled community toward the homes along the right side of the round-about. "Let's try and clear one of the smaller homes. Preferably, one with a pool," Rick says. Michonne quickly says, "Why one with a pool?" Rick says, "Let me see something." He says motioning Michonne to follow him.

They walk very cautiously over to the right of the round-about where another row of homes began. They reached the third house along the left side of the street that was much smaller than the mini mansion nightmare they had just come from. Rick walks along the side of the house watching for hidden walkers in the bushes. They reach the backyard and they both see that there's no pool just grass and a shed. As with the other backyards, there is a bike rack with 4 or 5 bikes in the rack. Rick drops his bags on the ground, "Keep watch while I knock on the door." He tells her. She drops her bags and takes the safety of the machine gun.

Rick quietly walks up the back steps to the door. He opens the screen door and knocks. No movement. So he opens the backdoor and walks in while easing the screen door close. Again he is in the kitchen, no dishes in the sink nothing out of place. He reaches up to a cabinet trying to find something loud to throw against the wall in the house. Rick finds a glass cup and throws it at the front door that directly across from the back door so that it shatters loudly. He starts to hear walkers waking up and walking toward the front door. In a matter of seconds 6-8 walkers young and old crowd around the front door.

Rick quickly steps back out the back door and shuts it closed then he again eases the screen door closed. "I think this some kind of compound you know like the one in Waco. Except this is one is on a much deeper, sicker scale. The houses with pools are probably filled with families of walkers. The smaller the house with a pool, I am thinking that those houses may be empty." He says. "Let's try that house two doors up."

They get to the house with same setup as the mini mansion yard. A little patch of grass and a modest magnolia tree with all its leaves from the past few years in the pool, grill, and a shed, but this yard had an above ground pool. Like kind you buy at Wal-Mart or Big Lots. Michonne walks over to the pool and takes her katana out and pokes around the inside of the pool. Suddenly her katana pierces something and out of nowhere she woke up the pool of zombies or the zombie soup.

Michonne steps back in disgust as she sees the bloated zombies climbing on each other in the pool. As Rick watches the zombies in the pools he sees that there are enough of them to bust the pool so he quickly pulls Michonne back away from the pool. "Come on I saw house that closer to those stores that were smaller than these." He tells her.

Rick pulls out his Carol's watch and sees that its noon he looks at Michonne and says, "We'll try and clear this house if it's good we'll take a break so you can change clothes."

As they get closer to the smaller house it happens to be closer to the stores than Rick thought. In fact it wasn't a house at all. "Elysium Fields Library" the sign said on the small window. It was a tiny store front library. Rick walks up to the front door and taps on the front window. Then he walks over to the door and knocks. He walks back down the steps and lays his bags by some bushes on the side of the building. Michonne lays her bags down too and follows Rick to the front door again. He pulls out the key labeled "Elysium Fields Library" and unlocks the door. He walks in with Michonne close behind. Rick says to Michonne, "Grab a book and throw it across the library, make sure its loud." She grabs the first book she sees and throws in the direction of a book stand. The book hits the stand knocking it over making a crashing noise to the floor. They both get ready for anything. But nothing happens.

Rick closes the front door quietly. They both begin to walk through store quietly waiting for something to wake up and startle them but nothing happened. As they walk through library they notice that it's not set up like a traditional library. All the books had the same cover and were the same height. Rick grabs a book off the shelf. It's a picture of that guy that was on the wall in that classroom at the mini mansion the book title says, "The Church of Elysium Fields guide to Obedience written by Longinus." "What the hell?" Rick whispers.

As they move deeper in to this tiny library Rick sees some stair on the far right back corner. Rick and Michonne walk toward the stairs. Rick grabs plastic mug hanging on a revolving counter display and throws it up the stair so that it hits the wall. They get quiet listening for that horrible moaning and heavy breathing sound. But there was no noise. They both walk up stairs and as they get to the floor Rick signs to Michonne to clear the right side of the floor and he will do the left.

As Michonne walk with stealth to the right she knocks on the doors and when there was no noise she opened the door and inspected all corners of each room she entered. She came across a couple of rooms that had clothes and shoes another room had cleaning supplies and brooms and mops. Then she came to a room that was an office. As she cleared this room she saw an office desk with a small laptop and two large laser jet printers sitting on another desk by the window. She began following the cords of everything to see where they lead to. The cords lead to a utility closest. Buts there no door there's only a dark blue curtain. So she grabs a cup of pencils and throws it in to curtain. She held the gun up ready to blast but nothing happens. She walks over to the curtain and pulls it back and sees the corpse of a man in khakis and a white shirt and with a shot gun hanging in his hand. She could see the dried blood, brains and skull left on the dark stained wall and the ceiling skylight. Making the room dark and cold, all the other rooms with skylights had felt warm to her.

As she came to the last door she knocked. Michonne started to get nervous about opening the door given the time when she heard little walkers scratching the door in the mini mansion. She opens the door very slowly and again the room had a skylight lining the ceiling. She looks around and sees it's a bathroom with a sink, toilet and shower with a shower curtain. She begins to look under the sink and there are a couple of towels and washcloths. Then she grins ear to ear over the fact that there is some toothpaste, ivory soap and a half a bottle of shampoo in a medium size tray, "Yes!" she whispers. She stands up and turns the faucet on. After a few seconds water started to come out. Not a full stream of water but just enough, "I'll take it", she says.

Rick walks back down the hall in Michonne's direction while she is pulling the door closed. As he walks down he peeks in the same rooms that she just cleared. Then he walks over to her, "It all clear on that end, just a room with a couple of chairs a couch and a wall shelf with some cd's. The other two doors lead to the same bedroom. How about you?", he says.

"Some clothes and shoes, cleaning supply closet. An office with a corpse in the utility closet," then Michonne walks closer to Rick with a mischievous grin on her face and says, "and a clean bathroom with towels, soap, shampoo and drum roll please…it has running water." Michonne closes her eyes and lightly tongues her top lip from top to bottom and looks Rick in the eyes then starts walking to the stair, "Just the thought of getting that pool water and the last couple of weeks off me make me feel so excited." Rick laughs a little through his grin and shakes head while watching Michonne walk toward the stairs. "Well, I never knew it was that easy to please a woman, maybe we should take stroll down to the water tower at the other end of the road." Michonne stops going down the stairs with Rick right behind her and she turns her head to the left slightly enough for Rick to see her lips and hear her say in a seductive low voice, "Maybe." Then she keeps walking down the steps back in to the library. Rick grins at her response and stands on the stairs a few seconds before shaking his head then going down the rest of the stairs back in to the library.


	7. Chapter 7

After Rick and Michonne bring the bags in the Library Rick sets the bags down and takes a look at the time and realizes it's going on 3:00p "Ah, look Michonne I know that you want to take shower but it's going on 3 o'clock were going to lose the light soon so we.." "I hear you Rick." She says. So Michonne heads to the door and grabs the machine gun and puts her katana across her back. Rick takes the pistol from his holster to check see that it's fully load then checks the shot gun. "Alright, let's see if we can find some to eat around here." "Let's check that warehouse across the street." He says. The minute Michonne steps out the door she instantly goes back to survival mode. It's been a while sense she had a real moment to herself. So the idea of a shower somehow gave her hope or more purpose at least enough to get through this quick run. It also however scared her little. The last time she looked forward to something was when she decided to stay at the prison and stop looking for the Governor. Rick closed the door and locks it.

As they begin walking across the street toward the store they see that there are two walkers sitting outside of the, "Elysium Warehouse". As they begin to approach the store the two weak walkers manage to get up and come toward Rick and Michonne. Rick turns toward Michonne, "As if you even had to look?" she says. She hands him the empty bags she was carrying then she walks up to the one walker and slices his head clean off his rotten neck. She then slices the other walker head in half from his right collar bone down to his waist. After dicing the second walker head in half she walks over to the head of the first walker laying on the ground still breathing heavy and still moving his mouth. Michonne quickly stabs it through the skull. However, when she pulls her katana out the skull she remembers the last time she dispatched the head of a walker like this was the head of Hershel creating a flash back of the last time she talked with him before they were kidnapped by the Governor.

Rick walks up on her after stabbing the skull of the first walker, "You alright?" he asked. Michonne just shakes her head yes. "Alright, let's go around the back first since we already know that there is no threat in front," Rick and Michonne move toward the side of the building. When they finally reach the end of the side Rick hold his hand up signing to Michonne to hold on while he peeks his head around the corner. Rick looks around the corner and he sees about 8-10 walkers. Some are sitting on the ground against the back of the warehouse door and some are slowly roaming around a mid-size commercial truck with the driver side door open and no logo on it. The inside of the driver door is splattered with blood and a corpse hanging out of the driver seat. "Chonne, there's a truck back there." He whispers to her. "Look lets go back around front and go inside to see if we can find any keys to the truck." "I have the keys to the warehouse." Rick says. Michonne shakes her head and starts heading back to the front of the store.

Once they get inside they see almost all bare shelves. "Damn", Rick says. "Well let's see what we can find for the night then we will head out tomorrow. Let's hurry though because it's getting dark." He says. Michonne again shakes her head in agreement. They manage to grab some boxes of plain oatmeal, dry milk, duct tape, olive oil, some wind up flash lights and a couple of boxes of candles and matches. Rick decides to have a quick look toward the back of the store and Michonne follows behind him. "Look for the keys to that truck." He says in a low voice. As they look for keys Michonne sees some large military like back packs sitting under one of the tables against the wall. Michonne grabs one of backpacks and she feels that they are a bit heavy. She turns to Rick and says, "Look." and shows him the backpacks. Rick shakes his head and grabs one of the backpacks and looks inside the bag and sees hydration packs, MREs (Meals, Ready-to-Eat), sunscreen, a first aid kit, medications, fire kit with a fire starter, space bag, extra socks, sunglasses and another flashlight. By mistake the flashlight falls out of the backpack on to the floor causing walkers in the back of the building to stir.

Rick and Michonne hear random banging and clawing at the back door. The back door was made of cheap plywood. If enough of the walkers bang on the door they will break it down. "Come on let's go." Rick says. As they leave the back room with the military backpacks Rick closes the entrance to the back room then him and Michonne drag one of the empty shelves over to the door that leads to the back of the warehouse so the walkers won't go any further. They both put the military back packs on then they take the bags they came in with and start filling them with whatever is left on the shelves then head toward the front door. Michonne stands watch while Rick closes the front door to the warehouse. Then they head back to the store front library. "We can check out that emergence clinic down the road tomorrow on our way out. If we are lucky maybe the keys are in that truck if not I'll try and hotwire it." Michonne looks at him and says, "Now, as a Sheriff why would you know how to hot wire a truck?" Rick says, "When I was young me and my friend...", he was about to say Shane but he pauses for a second then says, "Let's just say I was well on my way to delinquency as a teenager before deciding to picking up a badge."

Once they get back inside the library they put the items from the store down on the floor and together push one of the book shelves in front of the entrance to the door. Once they do a quick clearing of the upstairs they bring some of the bags from the warehouse upstairs in to the sitting room with the couch two are chairs are. Rick hands Michonne a flashlight and a couple of candles, "You'd better hurry up and shower before it gets to dark cause I want to get in there too." Michonne grabs a bra, underwear khakis and a white cotton button down shirt from one of the bags she filled from the mini mansion and her katana. Puzzled, Rick watches her pick up her katana and says, "You can leave your sword here, I am not going anywhere". Michonne keeps walking toward the door way of the room then and says, "I am sorry…I just can't do that right now". She walks to the bathroom then she closes the bathroom door. When Michonne closes the door behind her she leans on the door and takes a breath of exhaustion. Then she listens to Rick through the door as he goes through the bags.

Michonne walked over to the small shower and pulls the curtain back to turns it on. She turns the water on a few seconds go by and a light but steady rain of luke warm water flows through the shower head. "It not much but I'll take it", she whispers to herself. As she stepped in to the shower with the low pressure water she moves her head so that the water hits hair then down the rest of her body. She leans both hand against the wall in front of her and leans her head down looking at her feet. Although the water was morecold than warm she couldn't feel it. This was the closes caress of soothing she has had sense all this began. A time of rest where she can fully enjoy the fact that she wasn't in any imminent threat at this brief minute.

As Rick goes through the bags they have so far he realizes that they had gotten some good supplies on this run. His only concern was how they would get all this stuff back to Terminus. Rick walks over to the couch, plops down and lays his head back. In the stillness Rick can hear the shower running in the distance. Before he knew what he was thinking about he started imagining Michonne in the shower. The water flowing down her smooth rich bronze colored shoulders, some water rolling down the small of her back on to rolling down her perfectly round behind, then the water first hitting her face then rolling down her neck, steadily rolling down to her round supple breast then the water dropping off her rock solid nipples. Rick licks his lip at just thought of taking the tip of his tongue and running it over her stiffened nipples. He figured some of that water would even be lucky enough to start rolling down on her stomach, some of the water rolling down her rich dark chocolate gams. Rick went even further and started to fantasize the luckiest streams of water that rolls from her navel down in to her… Rick quickly started to feel hot and sweaty, he looks down and he can see and feel the front of him growing in size and his pants becoming very tight around his zipper. Rick smiles and does a light chuckle to himself. With everything that has happened he forgot what it was like to be aroused. The last time he felt this way was the first night that he found Lori and Karl. While blushing he decided to get up, grabs a few bags then goes down stairs. Before going downstairs he looks down at the floor leading up to the bathroom door and looks at the door for a split second in curiosity then goes down to the first floor.


	8. Chapter 8

Once Michonne gets out of the shower she puts on the underwear and bra. The bra is a little tight but it'll do. As she puts on the clothes from the bag she see that the khakis are small so she quickly washes out the old pair of pants she had on earlier with some white vinegar then throws them over her shoulder. Michonne heads toward the bathroom door. Before she opens the door she presses her ear to the door to see if she hears walkers on the outside. She then opens the door slowly and steps out with her katana strapped on her back. She walks toward the top of the stairs and whispers, "Rick…Rick?" Rick comes to the bottom of the stairs, "Yea," "Oh, just wanted to make sure you were still here." Rick smiles then looks down then back up at her at the top of the stairs and says, "Yea I am still here." As he begins to walk up the stairs he sees how Michonne is dressed, "I take it you didn't like the pants." He says in a playful manner. Michonne says, "No it's not that, they didn't fit. The men's pants were too big and the women's pants were too skinny. The women must have barley been eating anything cause the pants are too skinny. So I just washed my old ones out. I will put them back on once they're dry."

As Michonne starts walking toward the bedroom down the hall Rick begins following behind her. As he follows he is transfixed on her perfect dark brown legs. Watching each step she takes toward the bedroom. Rick remembering his self, he clears his throat and stands in the doorway of the bedroom, "Well I secured the bottom floor we should be good for the night." He tells her. As he walks over to the bedroom window to take a look outside he says, "I saw a few stragglers here and there but nothing to be alarmed about." "Cool", she replies as she walks towards some of the bags that were on the floor. She looks in the bags for a shirt and rips off one of the sleeve then she bends over allowing her hair to flop over as well so she can tie up all her dreads. Rick turns from the window and watches her as if she is moving in slow motion. He starts to stare at the back of her bare legs again then his eyes work their way up to bottom of her shirt. Michonne flips her hair back and then stands up straight with her back to Rick, lifting her arms over her head in order to tie up her hair with the ripped sleeve. Rick watches her shirt raise up a little ways just enough to see her underwear and how it fits sung around her behind and waist.

Michonne turns around while finishing tying up her hair, "Do you like the show?" she says with a giggle. Rick ashamed of his self for staring says, "I'm sorry I almost forgot what a women looks like in nothing but a shirt." "Well then you'll love the way I put olive oil on." She says with a smirk and laughs. Rick walks to the doorway and turns to look at her again and says, "Maybe later, I want to get in the shower myself. So are you straight?" Michonne pulls out the olive oil and pours some in her hands and starts to rub it in on her legs and says without looking up, "Yep." Rick grabs some clothes then goes in to the bathroom.

When Rick comes out of the shower he begins to hear what sounds like music down the hall. But he shakes his head thinking that he's hearing things. So he presses his ear to the door and hears the faint sound of a trumpet. The trumpet sound is carrying a tune from a time that has since long past. It sounds like it is an old phonograph playing a tune from the early 20th century. He walks out of the bathroom and slowly follows the sound of the trumpet. Being a country boy Rick was only interested in country music if he listened to music at all. However, for some reason he could tell that this record was pretty old, by the scratchiness and the crackling of the recording. But Rick felt there was something hypnotic about the sounds of that trumpets long drawn out cry. It made him forgot for a second that there was a horrible world outside the walls of this fake library. The last time Rick heard any music was when he was tending to the garden and pigs back at the prison.

Rick locates the room where the music is playing and he sees Michonne sitting on the window sill in her shirt and all of her hair still wrapped up in a ponytail on top of her head in the sitting room. Her sitting there staring out of the window reminded Rick of picture perfect oil painting. One of her legs was bent underneath her on the sill the other hanging down with her toes touching the floor. Rick can see two candles lit in the corners opposite of the windows in the room. As he looks at Michonne sitting on the window sill looking at the solar powered porch light on those tiny off-grid homes of Elysium Ricks asks, "Where did you get the music from?" "I was looking through the backpacks we found at the warehouse and it had a charged MP3 player she says staring out of the window. Rick throws his old clothes in a corner of the room and just stands and listens to the trumpeter wail and cry with his horn. As if, the musician was playing the blues to soften the sadness that is in the new world Rick and Michonne must learn to survive in. The two of them have no way to express the pain and loss they have experienced these past few years. But this musician and his horn expressed it for them precisely.

Rick grabs a candle from one of the bags and uses one of lit candles in the corner to light the one in his hand and walks from the room. He returns to the sitting room with one of the bags from the mini mansion in to the sitting room with Michonne. He moves one of the chairs closer to the candles on the floor and he starts to take inventory of what is in the bag while the music plays.

As Rick continues to check out the bags Michonne quietly sits without saying a word. Then she looks away from the window turns to Rick, "I didn't get the chance to tell you this but, I was planning on staying at the prison. I wasn't going back out there to look for the governor." "I went out there looking for him but I think I was really just trying to keep my distance from people. After Andrea, I was scared to get attached to another group of people again. But each time I came back there was always someone there happy to see me. If it wasn't Hershel then it was Karl, Maggie Glenn…you. There was always someone at the prison happy to see that I had made it back in one piece, to see that I was still alive." She turned back to the window, "I had come to live for those short minutes of bliss. I hadn't experienced anyone happy to see me since…" Michonne paused. "It felt nice having a group that cared about me. When I went with Hershel to burn those walkers I was telling him that I was ready to stay and…associate with the group, I was ready to find some place to call home. He told me that home is where people care about your well-being and that everyone there cared about me."

"I breathed a sigh of relief. Then somehow we got on the subject of when he was locked up in the drunken tank." "We laughed", she says smiling looking out the window. "It felt so good to laugh again just to feel free to laugh was a feeling I can't explain. It was at that moment when…" then she stopped. Rick looked over at her then looked down at what was in his hand. "Yea, Hershel was a good man", Rick said. "But then once the fighting and killing was over and I looked around everyone that I had come to care about was gone, the prison, the place I was so ready to call home…was no more. I was by myself…again." "It was like a nightmare because I had just decided that I wanted to connect with people again, I wanted to smile and laugh again. And then it was all over in a heartbeat. So I grabbed two pet walkers and began my journey as alone, again.

Rick could tell by the choke in voice that she was crying while staring out of the window. Then she began speaking with more hardness in speech, "I want to do more than just survive, I want to feel good while I am still here on this earth. Prior to this mess human beings were always looking for the next or better moment. The present moment we were in was never good enough. And now the present moment is all we have left." "It's like looking for something better instead of being grateful for what we already have." She says in a semi-trance. Michonne looks over at Rick as he has stopped rummaging through the bags. With tears in her eyes she tells Rick, "This is hunter-gatherer season Rick, man has come full circle. We are gathers and we are the hunted again. This world will not suffer us long. This world no longer has any room for the elderly. Hershel will probably be the last person we will ever see over the age of 65." Michonne looks back out of the window staring at her reflection in the window and says, "So I am gonna make sure to take any and every joyful moment I can get from now on."

Rick puts down what's in his hand from the bag and walks over to Michonne and sits down on the window sill facing her and sees the tears rolling down her face. He gradually leans in cupping her face with both his hands wiping away her tears with his thumbs. As he pulls her face closer to his, Rick looks in her dark hazel colored eyes and says in a low and tender voice, "We all always wanted you to stay at home with us. I always wanted you to stay home with us. It's like Karl said you are one of us." Before Rick knew it he was kissing Michonne on mouth, her soft lips pressed against his was a moment that the two of them desperately needed to remind them why they must continue to live instead of just continuing to survive. Michonne responded to Ricks lips as though this was her very first kiss and also like it could be the last kiss she would ever have.

While the two became lost it the kiss Rick starts to moves his hands from her face to her waist. As he starts to move her closer to him by her waist he started to feel the tightness in the front of his pants again which only made him kiss her more passionately. Michonne put her arms around his neck letting him know that this was something she wanted too. Recognizing this acknowledgement from Michonne, Rick takes one of his hands and moves it to the back of her neck pulling her in tighter to the kiss. While the breathing between them starts to become heavier and closer to out of control, it was at this point that Rick stopped kissing her and gets up and walks to the middle of the room, "I am sorry, I shouldn't have done that." He says. Rick had only been with Lori since they got married so every time he gets aroused he immediately has a flash back to the last time he made love to her.

Michonne looks over at him standing in the middle of the room with a look on her face as though she understands why he can't go any further. Rick walks over to the bags and picks them up then he walks toward the doorway, "I don't want to lose you Michonne. I already lost someone special to me because I was blinded by my emotions." "I'm gonna sleep down stairs. Rick walks over to the doorway and says without turning to look Michonne in the face, "You mean entirely too much to me and you mean too much to Karl for me to screw our relationship up" he tells her. With a look of disappoint and also agreement she turns and looks back out the window and says, "I hear you Rick, goodnight."


	9. Chapter 9: No Regrets

Rick managed to sleep on and off most of the night while on the first floor of the store front library. He kept replaying the kiss in his head over and over again. He couldn't help it, when he held Michonne's face in his hand it was the first time sense everything happened he felt in control or better yet …virile. After Lori told Rick about the fact that the baby may actually be Shane's he couldn't stand the site of her let alone make love to her. This bothered Rick as well because if he hadn't shut Lori out during that time while she was pregnant perhaps things would have been different somehow. Rick having reconciled with his conscience about Lori's death he vowed to never let his personal feelings or emotions cut him off from anyone again.

However, Rick couldn't help getting that nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach when he thought about the kiss him and Michonne shared. That feeling you get in your stomach when taking that first plunge on a roller coaster, a nervous feeling that you can't help feeling good and excited about. The relentless replay in his head was when she wrapped her arms around his neck and when Rick pulled her in even closer by hers. It was at that point that their kiss went from consoling and a reassurance of safety, to passion and desire. Rick wanted a valid reason to be that close to her again but couldn't think of one.

Michonne woke up feeling good but she didn't know if it was the kiss that her and Rick shared or the fact that she got to sleep on a real bed for the first time in months. Michonne decided to stay in the bed for a while looking out of the window from the pillow she was resting her head on. The sun was just beginning to rise. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind she knew exactly where she was and why she was there. But Michonne wanted to pretend for as long as she could that she was on business trip, or maybe she was on a quick weekend get away with her boyfriend Terry. Before all of this she absolutely hated her ex-husband and now all she wanted to do was imagine that she was back in his dorm room after the first night the two of them maked love. Michonne wasn't really sure why she felt good this particular morning but, she decided not to analyze it and to just enjoy it.

As Michonne began to replay last night's kiss in her head she tried to relive every single minute. From the tremble she felt going down her spine when Rick touched her face to the point when he stopped and walked away. She daydreamed about Rick's hand on her waist pulling her closer to him. But what really got her juiced up was when Rick took his hand and seized the back of her neck, like he had to have her right then and there. Michonne liked the fact that she could still be sought after as a women instead of just a katana wielding warrior. On the other hand, she knows that in the old world their paths would have never crossed. And if Rick is that anxious to hold on to the past then no kiss, nor anything else, would never happen between them again in this world.

Rick comes upstairs to see if Michonne is up. As he walks down the hall to the bedroom he sees her lying across the bed still in her shirt and her hair still tied up. Rick could only imagine what he walked up on was a scene straight out of Maxim Magazine. Shane would always have some picture hanging in his locker at work of the Maxim Beauty of the month. Michonne laying on her stomach and her long dark mahogany legs up and crossed together. Her shirt barely covers her perfectly round backside. He watched her ass as it shook slightly when she moved her legs up and down. Rick started growing beads of sweat on his forehead and on his nose as he quickly imagined Michonne on all fours in just her panties and an unlatched bra. Rick suddenly shakes his head in order to come to his senses.

Rick clears his throat loudly while knocking on the open bedroom door, "Good morning, judging from your care free position on the bed you slept well." Michonne turns around startled a little and sighs, "Better than I have in a while. I have just been laying here dreaming that this was just some ordinary day." Then Michonne gets up off the bed and looks at the ground outside through the window and see 3 walkers roaming around. As she looks at the ground she says with a slight disappointment, "But it doesn't take much to bring me crashing back to reality." "Never the less I am gonna start remembering things that make me feel good instead of always recalling on the bad." Michonne does some leg lifts then gets on the floor to do push-ups. On her 5th push-up she asked, "How about you?" Rick, forgetting that she can see him staring at her says, "Huh…ah no I didn't really sleep that well. Listen I wanted to talk to you about last night, I know this will sound like a cliché' but I really didn't mean to…" Michonne stops her push-up walks over to Rick before he can even finish his sentence, she places her index finger on his lips looks him in those sea blues eyes and said, "Rick, I have no regrets about last nights kiss. It felt nice to be wanted for something other than my niche' for survival." "I have been struggling with guilt, anger and sadness for, what feels like a millennia and it has been making my world so dark I can barely see and breathe." Rick almost missed everything she said because she was close enough to kiss again. As Michonne walked back to the floor to finish, she looks at Rick and says, "Tomorrow isn't promised Rick, that phrase has never been truer than it is right now."

As she goes back to doing her push-up's she stops and say, "In fact, last night would feel sweeter if you didn't have any regrets about either. We both know in a normal world I wouldn't be your choice, especially sense you're a good ole' country boy." Rick walked away feeling a little light headed and confused because he did enjoy kissing her. He enjoyed it a lot. He began to think about why he felt so ashamed and embarrassed by the kiss. Maybe what he said last night about the dynamics of their relationship was a lie that he was telling him self out loud. Rick started to think that maybe he's trying too hard to hold on to the past that could never exist in this horrifying new world.

Michonne comes down the stairs of the tiny library where Rick is waiting for her so they can go check out the clinic the next block down. As Rick adjusts his gun belt he glances over at Michonne as she walks over to the far corner and looks at the wire that comes from outside in going straight up stair to the office where she saw the utility closet. "Wow, these homes are fully operational with electricity and hot water. People were actually getting the hang of living off the grid using solar panels. I guess a little too late" she says while picking up a gun off the books on the long oak table in the middle of the floor. "You know if we could somehow get rid of all the walkers in this tiny home community maybe the group could actually live here. The only problem is with the fake grass." Rick says looking out the small window in the wall. "Fake grass?" Michonne says with look of interest. "Yea, I think all the grass is made from some type of Astroturf. Otherwise its a pretty good idea for an off the grid community, makes me wonder if they knew something that the rest of the world didn't know about the outbreak." He tells her. As they walk out of the library Rick looks up and down the block, "after we check out the clinic I'll go see about that truck around the back of that warehouse to see if I can get it started."

"Just for the record, I don't regret what happened last night I was just trying to…" Michonne cut him off again, "Good! I am glad that's settled. I wouldn't want you to say or do anything else that you 'won't regret' at a later date," she says with a tiny smirk. Rick smiles at her with a bit of intrigue. "Besides, that part of a relationship was never…my charm so to speak." He tells her. Michonne walking next to him clasps her hands behind her back and looks at Rick while biting the corner of her bottom and says with a devilish look on her face, "Well then I doubt if you would be able to handle me." Rick stops and smiles as he watches her and her perfect behind walk in front of him down the block.

The innuendos cease as they approach the door of the clinic. Rick takes a look inside as Michonne covers his back, "It looks pretty empty inside." He whispers. Then Rick pulls out the keys to the clinic he found in the shed the day before and unlocks the door quietly. As they walk through the tiny lobby toward the back rooms they see very small individual hospital rooms with sliding glass doors. The lights overhead are dim and flickering giving a very uneasiness to the search. Michonne pears inside the rooms quickly and notices there are 5 to 6 walkers in each of the rooms. She taps Rick on the shoulder as he continues down the narrow corridor. Michonne looks at him and points to the rooms and holds up 5 then 6 fingers indicating the number of walkers in each hospital room. Rick shakes his head and points to the prescription cabinet at the end of the corridor.

When they reach the prescription cabinet he notices that there's a lock on it. He looks at Michonne signaling to get ready because he is about to break the glass for the medicine. Michonne takes a deep breath and shakes her head then turns around for roaming walkers. Rick put the bag on top of the cabinet and takes out his flashlight to break the glass. From the first shattering of the glass a loud contamination alarm sounds and the sprinkler system goes off. The lights stop flickering due to the sprinkler system and the once sleepy walkers begin to rise up and press and bang against the glass doors to the hospital rooms. Michonne sees in the distance a couple of straggling walkers emerge from the clinic offices in to the lobby up front. "Hurry, Rick this isn't good!" Michonne yells.

The walkers begin to bang and press harder on the glass doors to the small hospital rooms. One of the room glass doors by the entrance in to the lobby breaks and the walkers that were once in the hospital room start coming toward them. Michonne aims her machine gun at the walkers and starts to shoot, meanwhile Rick is shoving as many prescription bottles in to his bag as fast as he can. While shooting at the walkers coming toward them she hits and shatters two more hospital room doors and more walker start heading toward them, "Come Rick we gotta go!" She yells. Rick grabs the bag and throws the flashlight in the bag, pulls out his pistol and starts shooting the walkers in the head. As Michonne attempts to make a path to the lobby with the machine gun Rick follows close behind her shooting the walkers that didn't fall from her shot.

As they make their way to the lobby Rick yells, "Keep going to the door!" Because of the loud alarm and the shots going on in the clinic Michonne starts to see more walkers coming toward the front of the clinic. "Shit!" "Michonne says, "There are walkers about to block the entrance outside!" Once they reach the door a group of about 10 walkers come crashing through the front window of the clinic causing them to all fall on to lobby floor. "Go just go, shoot anything thats moving!" Rick yells.

Once they get out of the front door more walkers from across and up the block start coming toward them. Michonne has run out of ammo, there's another clip in her bag but she doesn't have time to grab it and reload. So she throws the gun back in the bag and pulls out the katana and starts slicing walkers out of their path back to the library. As Michonne makes a path toward the library front door Rick begins running for the library door when he sees that she is about to be surrounded by walkers and she's being pushed further away from the library. "Chonne' come on!" he yells. Michonne cut through the walkers in front of her and makes a sharp left for the library. As she approaches the stairs Rick opens the library door and they make it inside. Rick gets the keys out for the door and locks it. Some of the walkers start heading for the front porch of the library while most of the others move to the loud alarm at the clinic. Frantically, Rick says "Help me move this table in front of the door." Michonne throws her katana on the floor and helps Rick push the large oak table from the middle of the floor to against the front door.

Luckily for them, the library doesn't have a large front window like the clinic so they are reasonably safe inside the library for now. But they can still hear the walkers scratching and banging at the front door. Once they get the table against the door, they stop to calm down. Rick starts pacing around the room trying to figure out how they are gonna get out of this. Michonne breathing heavily looks at Rick with anguish written all over her face. Her dreads still in a ponytail on top of her head but disheveled and wet. Rick bends over and putts his hands on his knees water dripping his face from the sprinkler system trying to come up with a plan. Then he looks up at Michonne leaning with her back against the table, her shirt so soaked that it's sticking to her skin and chest.

Rick walks over to Michonne while trying to catch his breath and asks, "Are you alright? Are you hurt?" Michonne places her hand on her chest as if her hand will slow down her heavy breathing and says, "I am alright, are you o.k.?" Rick begins to stare at the hand on her chest and watches as her _big brown eyes_ play hide and seek through her sopping wet shirt. As he continues to monitor her shirt he can see her belly and navel playing the same erotic game as her peaks above.

Rick walks up to Michonne and seizes the back of her head and they begin to lip embrace fervently as walkers continue clawing and scratching at the walls and door. Rick stops kissing to look at Michonne's face as she seems dazed, light-headed and speechless from the sudden kiss he gave her, "No, I'm not alright." he says, and then he kisses her again in the same fashion with one hand cradling the back of her neck the other fondling her plump hill tops.

Michonne, disoriented with pleasure, takes her hands and pulls him closer so she can feel his tight stiffness rub against her inner thighs. She quickly starts removing his jacket, then she pulls his shirt up over his head then she unbuckles his gun belt and lets it drop to the floor. Rick lifts her up and sits her on the edge table and removes her shoes throwing them on the floor while nipping her ear lobes. Rick stops in order to see Michonne's face brimming for more. Michonne rips open her wet shirt leaving her bra exposed then she leans back on the table waiting for him to do whatever he wants.

Rick rips her bra wide open then pulls her back up looks in her eyes and clutches the back of her neck then he leans in slowly and right before his lips meets hers he whispers, "No Regrets". While he has one hand on the back of her neck he takes the other hand and he unbuttons her pants and rips them down and off her legs, slips his hand inside her panties and starts to massage her lower lips. Michonne has her hands on his ears stroking his hair as they continue to make out she can feel his fingers slowly massage her main vein and begins to breathe heavy all over again then softly she whimpers in his ear. "This is what you wanted last night isn't?" Rick says while continuing to stroke her and licking her stiffened peaks. "Huh, isn't?" he says softly. And just as she is about to speak he puts two fingers inside her nest and she says in an excitedly weak voice, "Yes, yes!" Rick teasingly moves his fingers in and out of Michonne causing her to become weaker with pleasure. Rick looks at her face as he weakens her with ever thrust of his fingers taking a moment to see that she was bluffing earlier (to his delight), about handling her.

Still kissing passionately, "You want more don't you?" he says while pulling his fingers out of her. "Uh Huh," she whimpers again. Rick rubs those soggy lower lips again and again teasing her to the point where she can't speak. "Do you want more of this?" he says while putting three fingers in her, "Or are you ready for me?" He whispers to her. As Rick continues to finger her he says, "You want me, then say it? You want me inside you don't you?" "Yes, please I can't take it anymore, I want you in me." She cries quietly.

As they lock lips again Rick reaches behind Michonne and pushes all the books on to the floor. Some of the walkers outside the library front door move toward the alarm but there are still a few that remain outside the library door still clawing and trying to get in after hearing Rick knock all the books on the floor. They both start unbuckleing his pants, he tells her, "Lay back on the table." Then he puts her legs up on his chest and pulls her waist down toward the edge of the table and enters her tightly glazed donut while licking and kissing her inner thighs. "Oh my God!", Rick whispers as Michonne groans and moans from defeat. Rick begins to thrust in slowly making sure to keep her in check. Then, Rick pulls her up off the table and turns her over while spreading her legs apart. He enters her hatch again from behind this time and they exhale from his entrance in to her. Rick leans over Michonne's back spreading her arms on the table with his. He kisses and licks her neck and the small of her back then he gently reaches his hand to the front of her neck bringing her back up turning her head to the side slightly so he can kiss her soft luscious lips while continuing to thrust her. Rick pinches those rubber bullets of hers and starts pounding her harder and faster. Just when Rick doesn't think can handle her anymore he feels Michonne's flower grow tighter and tighter around him then he reaches his hand for her main vein again this time causing her to quiver uncontrollably, then he feels the sudden sensation of her flood gate breaking wide open bringing them both to a nirvana state of pleasure.

Michonne collapses on to the table exhausted from this all so sudden exhilarating moment. Rick admires the smoothness of her back and runs his hand down the small of her back again causing her a tiny tremble. Michonne gets up and turns around so she is sitting at the edge of the table in front of him again. She gently pulls Rick's wet but freshly shaven face close and they embrace their lips again lost in their tiny world of "No regrets". They are yanked out of their tiny world by the sounds of walkers still trying to get in.


	10. Chapter 10 Dry Goods

As the sun starts to beam through the small window in the front of the library, the sound of the loud contamination alarm snaps Rick and Michonne of their lip embrace to see one of the walkers peeping through the window of the library. Michonne quickly reaches her right hand for her sword on the table but, she remembers Rick pushing everything on the table to the floor in order to make room for their sexual romp. Rick slips out of her and quickly pulls up and buttons his pants then grabs his gun belt that was thrown on the floor by Michonne in order to get his pants off. Michonne climbs down off the table and grabs he katana, grabs her bra, underwear, and shirt and puts them on. Rick remembering that these walkers are weak from inactivity walks toward the small window bare-chested to get a better look at the walker peering through the window and sees that it's the same guy from the picture in the first house they cleared yesterday. "Well I be damned, it's the guy in the picture at that house" he tells Michonne. As Michonne puts on her pants she looks up at the walker then she says, "How many are still on the porch? Ricks looks out and says, "About 2 maybe four, most of them are still walking toward the sound of the alarm at the clinic."

"We should wait a little while longer, try and get as many walkers to the clinic it'll give me more time to hot wire that truck," Rick says. Michonne grabs her pants and starts to walk putting her katana on her back, "Well since we have a few I am going to take shower…I feel," Michonne looks at Rick with a tiny grin, "sort of grimy", and walks upstairs. Rick looks down at the floor and smiles in remembrance of what they just did then watches Michonne's long toned legs as she walks toward the stairs.

"Hell yeah", Michonne says while in the shower. "Hot water!" she says loudly. While Rick is trying to cover up the window so the walkers have no motivation he hears Michonne yell but doesn't know what she yelled so he finishes covering the window and runs upstairs to the bathroom and opens the door to a bathroom full of heat and steam. "What's wrong?!" he yells. "Nothing, there's hot water. Sorry, didn't mean to startle you", she tells him while pulling back the curtain a little. Rick smiles and laughs as he closes the door. He walks in to the office next to the bathroom and looks outside to see if any walkers are approaching library. Then he goes down stairs to peak through the window to see if there are still walkers on the porch. Rick sees that there's only one walker left on the porch. Rick starts to walk away slowly and begins to think about how nice it would be to take a hot shower. He also starts to think that taking a hot shower with Michonne would be even nicer.

After making sure the first floor is secure Rick walks up stairs and takes all his clothes of and walks in to bathroom and locks the door. Michonne looks over her shoulder and out of the corner of her eye she sees Rick pull back the shower curtain, "We should conserve the hot water, right?" Rick tells her while entering in to the shower. "Of course that's what the solar panels are for" she responds.

Rick gently grabs the soap from Michonne's hand and starts to lather up a wash cloth then begins to smoothly wash her back. Rick watches the soap run down her back down along her juicy brown bottom. He reaches both of his hands to her chest and slightly massages her soapy breasts and nipples. Michonne closes her eyes and tilts her head back so the water hits face and forehead as she is in a daze again from his foreplay. As Rick starts to intensify the massage he kisses neck while she continues to let the water hit her face. She puts both hands on the wall and Rick enters her for a third time within the past hour. Rick turns Michonne around picks her up by thighs and leans her back against the wall then slides in her. Michonne wraps both arms around Rick's neck while holding his head tightly against her neck. As he pumps her more and more Michonne pulls the top of Rick's hair in order to bring his face up so she can kiss him as he works hard for another nirvana.

The floor is becoming too slippery so Rick amazingly manages to stay in her while moving them to the closed lid of the toilet seat. He continues to kiss her while attempting to seat down on the toilet lid but his foot slips a little and plops down on the toilet seat causing Michonne to cry out as though she was in pain. Rick stops,"Oh shit, are you alright? I'm sorry are you hurt," he says. Michonne shakes her head no and starts kissing him again.

Michonne starts holding Rick tighter and tighter as her tunnel becomes tighter and tighter, Rick recalls her tremble from earlier and sees that she is riding him harder and harder. They both reach their climax and slowly come to a stop. Michonne pulls back a little in order to see Ricks face, "We have got to stop this or we won't have any energy to get out of Elysium," she laughs. Rick sighs heavily as Michonne rises up and says, "Yea I know, I guess I was hoping that lightening would strike twice." Michonne looks at him and says while shaking her head in agreement, "It did." She pulls the curtain back and steps one leg back in the shower and says, "Come on, we can still share the shower."

After Michonne finishes getting dressed she grabs a pillow and blanket puts it in one of the bags and takes it down stairs while Rick organizes the supplies evenly so the bags are easier to carry. Rick comes down stairs with all the bags and sees Michonne on the floor her head on the pillow fast asleep with her sword in her right hand. Rick smiles curiously at her while quietly laying the bags down on the floor. He looks in to the bag with the dry goods and pulls out a bag of cheerios and a bottle of water.

As Rick walks over to where Michonne is on the floor he peeks outside to see that the last walker has left the front porch. After he looks out the window to see if more walkers are coming down the block he sits down on the floor next to her. Michonne wakes up puts her sword back in it the case and sit up against the wall next to Rick. He silently offers Michonne some cheerios, "No thanks I'm not hungry" she says. "We'll try to get across the street while the walkers swarm the clinic. Go around to the left of the warehouse and get to the truck that way." He takes a swig of water from the bottle and offers it to Michonne and she takes a drink. We'll carry as many bags as we can over to the truck leave the rest of the bags on by the lawn near the statue. Get the truck running, grab the rest of the bags and get out of here", he explains. "Do you think they'll pay attention to a loud mac truck?" she asks. "As long as the alarm keeps going maybe they won't pay too much attention to us." Rick turns and looks at Michonne as she stares down at her sword. He notices that she seems a bit nervous about the plan, "Hey," he says while turning her chin toward his face, "We can do this, ok?" Michonne looks at him and presses her lips together, "Ok", she says. Rick leans in and kisses her lips once more.

Michonne leans her head on Rick's shoulder looking for some comfort before embarking on their daunting task. Rick liked feeling her head laying on his shoulder, "Don't worry, that's why I need you to eat something. "We ahh…" he clears his throat a little bit then smiles and says, "…spent up a lot of our energy this past hour and half." Michonne looks up at him and smiles then leans her head back on his shoulder. Rick grabs a hand full of cheerios, puts a few in his mouth then in silence, he feeds her couple of cheerios while her head continues to lie on his shoulder.


	11. Chapter 11: for Elysium go back

Rick gets up to take a look out the front window to see if there are more walkers coming down the block toward the clinic from the loud alarm. "Alright, I think this is a good time to go. I don't see any more walkers coming down the block but..." Rick tries looking toward the right side of the window but he can quite see further down the block, "…I can't see how many there are at the clinic", he tells Michonne while looking out the window. So Rick gathers his gun and grabs as many bags as he thinks he can carry without losing his balance. He nods to Michonne to do the same. There are 3 bags left on the floor, Rick puts his bags down and grab the 3 on floor and says, "I'll run these bags to a place where we can grab them on the way out." Michonne puts her bags down and says; "alright I will keep a look out."

Rick opens the door slowly and peeks his head out to make sure there are no walkers on the porch. He immediately turns right to look down the street at the clinic. Rick's heart quickly plummets as he looks down the block in shock at the number of walkers gathered at the clinic. Rick sighs and pulls his head back in and closes the door. He looks at Michonne with a look of uneasiness. "What? How many are down there?" she says and then Michonne opens the door and looks at what looks like at least 75-80 walkers roaming around the loud alarm that has engulfed the clinic then she closes the door. Michonne looks at Rick and begins to realize the impact their actions that only took place 2 hours ago. Michonne breaths a heavy long sigh and looks at Rick and says with a look of doubt, "We can do this." Rick sees her face and nods his head in agreement.

As Rick opens the door with the 3 bags Michonne follows behind him checking for any sudden recognition of the walkers coming toward them. Rick runs close to the bushes and houses along the side of the block and manages to get to the statue and drops the bag. Michonne watches the walkers from a large bush next to the library. As Rick makes his way back toward the library he motions to Michonne to go back inside to grab the bags she was able to carry while still being able to fight. Once she comes back out Rick runs in and grabs the rest of the bags then quietly closes the door then pulls out the keys to lock the door then, he motions to Michonne to run across the street to the back of the warehouse where the Mack truck is located.

As Rick watches Michonne disappear toward the back of the warehouse, he starts to feel a flutter of what it would be like to see Michonne for the last time going around the side of the warehouse and begins to get a heavy dose of fear that momentarily leaves him in a state of extreme fear. Rick watches the side of the warehouse then begins to notice that the alarm is becoming a little distorted, meaning that the walkers are tearing down the device that was originally making the noise. Rick knows he has to make a move, and then he sees Michonne leaning against the side of the building signaling him to cross. Just as Rick is about to cross the street he glances at the clinic to see the walkers movements. When Rick looks back he can see Michonne slicing up what appears to 2-3 walkers. Rick says under his breath, "I am soo glad she is good with a sword." Rick knows that if she would've started shooting the walkers around the clinic would've headed toward the noise from the shots.

Once Rick reaches the back of the building he can see that Michonne is alright and breathes a sigh of relief. But he notices that the soft look she had while they were "doing the deed" in the library is gone. The look on her face now was a look of determination and survival. She has been around this hell long enough to know where to place her emotions when necessary. Something that Lori was not able to do. Rick was revived by the fact that he had a partner that was as determined as him to live. Rick sees that she's already opened the back of the truck and has put her bags inside.

While Rick was putting his bags in the back of the truck he starts to pull down the hatch but sees that Michonne has decided to look around the corner at the walkers. When she looks around the corner she could also hear that the alarm was becoming dull. Michonne knew how to move by herself around herds of walkers. So she looked at the bags across the street by the statue and knew she could get those 3 bags and get back before the walkers noticed and the walkers were about to get bored with noise because the alarm was dying out. She runs down the side of the building and waits for Rick to look for her. Michonne signs to him that she is going for the bags by the statue then leaves Ricks sight. "No wait?!" Rick says in a loud whisper.

Rick closes the hatch but not all the way so when she gets back she can just throw them in there. Rick run up to the driver side of the truck and sees that Michonne has pulled the corpse that was hanging outside the driver side of the truck to the ground. He climbs in the driver side and closes the door. As he bends down to pull the wires out to hot wire the truck he sees the keys in the ignition already. Just as Rick begins to turn the ignition a walker starts to pull himself up in to the passenger side of the truck. The passenger door is wide open. Rick panics and pulls his pistol out and shoots the walker and kicks the body out the passenger door. But the loud gunshot has disturbed the walkers roaming the outside of the clinic.

Michonne hears the shot and can see the walkers have noticed her. She runs back across the street to the truck and sees the herd heading toward the opposite side of the warehouse. Rick is looking in the side mirror while trying to start the truck and can see a small herd coming around the corner. He presses the gas pedal of the truck trying to get it started, "Shit, shit come on start!" Michonne makes it around to the front of the truck and sees the herd spilling in to the small loading parking lot. She makes a quick beeline to the passenger side of the truck. Just as she throws the bags in Rick gets the truck started. As Rick pulls off he can see walkers falling behind the truck trying to grab at the back of it. Michonne climbs in as he starts to pulls off and shuts the door.

"What the hell was that?! You could've gotten caught out there?! He yells at Michonne. "I thought I could get back before they noticed." She yells back. As Rick pulls in to the roundabout he remembers that he didn't close the back all the way. He stops the truck and checks the side mirror to see how close they are so he can close the hatch before he goes up the steep hill. Rick hands Michonne the machine gun he has strapped around his neck, "I gotta close the back, cover me." Michonne and Rick get out and he run toward the back to close the truck hatch. Once he closes the hatch he turns around and sees the herd coming from around the side of the warehouse they just pulled off from and they are now headed up the street, so too are the walkers by the clinic. "Get back in, let's go!" They both hopped in the truck and close the doors and Rick pulls off up the street.

As Rick starts to drive up the steep hill he pulls out a map of the community he found at the library. "O.k., if we head up this street we will come to the entrance." Rick tells Michonne. As they ride past the Elysium registration building they look toward the entrance. There's an iron gate with walkers roaming all around it. Michonne sees the walkers and the shut iron gate, "Damn it! Can we every get a break?" While Rick is maneuvering the truck he replies, "I guess not." Rick and Michonne brace themselves for impact with the iron gate. "Alright her we go!" Rick yells.

The truck breaks through the iron gate and Rick manages to keep control of the truck as he drives past the walkers outside the gate then down the drive way. The driveway outside of the community is very serene (with the exception of the walkers), it was surrounded by woods. Rick starts to get better control over the truck after breaking through the gate and they begin to ride down the winding drive way that led to the Elysium Community. Rick sees where the drive way intersects with the main road then he looks out his side mirror to see if any walkers are behind them only to see that there are no walkers coming because they are all going in the inside the once gated community. Rick slows down and stops the truck at the intersection of the drive way and the main road. Rick turns to look at Michonne and clears his throat, "You o.k.?" Michonne shakes her head yes. Then Rick says in a tone of agreement, "_We_ are o.k. right?" Michonne hears the tone of his voice realizing what he is really referring to, she turns her head and begins to look out of her side window and responds with a sigh of assurance, "Yes Rick I hear you we're good." Michonne plops back on the back of the seat and put her leg up on the dash board, "Let's get back to the camp" she says.

Rick turns right toward the direction of the camp and they ride in silence. The quietness in the cabin of the Mack truck in very unsettling especially after what they did back of the library, Rick is especially nervous because he was never the type of guy before marrying Lori to just hit it and leave. So he felt some kind of obligation to explain his actions that would soon take place once they reached the camp. "Look, Michonne what happened back there…" Michonne looked at him with a blank look and cuts him off, "Rick, I am a big girl. What happened…" Michonne had to laughed a little to herself at the irony of the fact that her and Rick experienced Elysium in the Elysium Library in the community of Elysium, "…in Elysium will stay there if you want it to o.k.?" Michonne wanted him to say that there was no need for secrecy, but Rick's response was, "Good. I just don't think this would be the right time for Karl to have to deal with something like this after losing his mother so recently." Michonne began to wince with every word that Rick was saying and in spite of the fact that he was trying to avoid this awkward moment Michonne still felt like she was used for a quick fix. But in the back of her mind she always knew this but she went ahead with the moment in the library anyway. She understood this was a different world and she of all people knew that a love for the opposite sex could be vulnerability in the life that she has now. Her plan from the instant she left those guard walkers and killed the herd she was walking with after the prison was to live in the moment with little to no attachments. Although that was her plan she quietly hoped that she would someday find someone that she could have feelings for other than little children. What she had wanted to be love making was, according to Rick's speech, some kind of instinctual primal need that he is now trying to use Karl feelings as an excuse for never mentioning it again. Although Michonne doesn't want to be on her own again she is starting to question her choices for wanting to find the group again. It's one thing to live in constant fear; it's something else to live with constant fear and a broken heart. All she really wanted was to feel sought after like women used to feel before this worldly horror began.

As Rick and Michonne ride up the road heading toward the camp Michonne sees a sign on the side of the road that says, "For reality go straight, for Elysium go back." There was a price to be paid for their time in library and they both knew it. Michonne says, after reading the sign, "Reality", and then she turns away from Rick to get a nap in. Rick reads the same sign as he drives passed it without saying a word.


End file.
